The year 2006 was a landmark year in the history of the cultural development of Funing County.In August of that year,a symposium on the Chinese Zhuang Rice-based Cultures and Regional Economic Development was held in Funing County,sponsored by the Special Committee on Rice-based Cultures of the Chinese Folk-Art Association.At the same time,the“Chinese Zhuang Rice-based Culture Scientific Research Base”was set up in Dengmao Village of Guichao Township in Funing County and was formally recognized by the Special Committee on Rice-based Cultures of the Chinese Folk-Art Association.Even more exciting was that during the course of the cultural resources survey in February 2006,this collection of Zhuang folksongs was discovered in Poya Village of Bo’ai Township in Funing County.Relevant experts entitled this collection“The Poya Folksongs”.The original drawings used in Poya Village to represent these songs were confirmed to be a form of the ancient Zhuang pictograph system by experts in ethnic paleography.This discovery is significant for the study of Zhuang ethnic cultural history as well as for the study of the history of human language writing systems because a new system of original ancient symbols was discovered and this system is completely independent of the commonly used Zhuang square character system,called Sw Ndip,whose symbols and radicals are borrowed from Chinese characters.

The Zhuang Folksongs of Poya Village Funing,China(hereafter referred to as“the Poya Folksongs”)had thus far been known only in the Zhuang area of Funing County in Yunnan Province.These songs are songs of the Zhuang minority ethnicity,and were remembered via original symbolic drawings written on cloth.The cloth“songbook”is composed of eightyone simple but vivid pictures and each picture represents a song.Those songs contain many poetic features of Zhuang ethnic folk customs,archaic language,and characteristics common to rice-based cultural groups.The songs follow a traditional rhythm and feature some types of rhyming.The songs describe the complete cycle a young man and woman becoming a couple,from their first meeting with each other,becoming acquaintances,establishing a friendship,courting,and making promises to love one another to the end of time.The songs are characterized by five-syllable lines,with four or more lines composing a distinct song.Each song is independent and sung by a duet of two men or two women.The songs are composed in the northern dialect of the Zhuang language and are songs of the beautiful regional Zhuang melodies entitled“Fwen Da Lau”,“Fwen Byau”,“Fwen E Ei”,“Fwen Ge Ma”,which are sung throughout the Youjiang River Zhuang area.(Fwen is the word for“song”in the local Zhuang dialect.)The Zhuang songs are sung to beautiful,gentle melodies,which reflect the style of the Zhuang melodies of this region.